Kim Hyun Ji, the 31-year-old vocalist found dead on Tuesday with two other deceased males in South Korea's North Jeolla Province in what local police have reportedly ruled a group suicide, admitted in 2008 that she and her mother suffered physical abuse at the hands of her father when she was growing up.
In a candid post to social media, unearthed Wednesday by the Korean entertainment website Soompi, the singer, best known for her appearances on the Korean TV talent show "Superstar K" in 2009 and reality singing competition "Voice Of Korea" in 2014, vividly recalled one incident when she was 12, after she had been estranged from her dad for three years.
"My vision went red the moment I saw my father hitting my mother, who was trying to stop him from beating me," Kim wrote. "I hit him."
Though she described an attempt to reconcile with her father via text message, the incident clearly wounded Kim deeply.
"I asked him why he made me like this and why he had me if he was going to treat me so poorly," she wrote, before addressing him directly.
"You could have cared for me a little more. You should have loved me."
Though Kim appeared to have reconciled with her father in the years that followed, gushing about what a great paternal figure he had become, following her appearance last year on the second season of "Voice Of Korea."
"My father sent me a text saying, 'I'll always love my little girl,'" she wrote in another post. "My father truly loves my mother and takes care of me, even [taking care of] the little things."
Kim's body, along with that of the two men (referred to as Mr. Ko and Mr. Lee in published reports) was allegedly discovered, along with a pile of burnt charcoal briquettes, in a white minivan in front of Bokshimsa Buddhist Temple early Tuesday morning by Junbook Iksan police after an employee of the rental car company reported it missing and could not reach the driver. Officers used the onboard GPS to locate the car, according to the website Koreaboo.
The local authorities reported on Wednesday that there was no evidence of foul play.
"After investigating into the unnatural deaths of the three people, including Kim Hyun Ji, we were unable to discover evidence that could indicate homicide or circumstances that would lead us to suspect homicide," the Junbook Iksan Police spokesperson said to Korean entertainment news outlet allkpop.
"We view this as a typical case of suicide and plan to conclude our investigation."
Though no suicide note was discovered at the scene, the police representative said they are exploring all possible theories.
"The results of looking into and breaking down their correspondence are we discovered records of them in contact with one another, but we were unable to confirm whether they were slightly acquainted with one another," the rep said.
"Another unconfirmed aspect is whether it is true that they'd met through a suicide site."
Kim had released an EP following her television debut in 2009 and released a music video for her cover of the Leessang song "Rush" back in 2013, but both failed to generate any major success for the artist.
In a statement released Wednesday, "Voice Of Korea" director Oh Kwang Suk said they were never able to feature Kim as well as they should have on the show.
"Kim Hyun Ji was a participant with great ambitions regarding music. It was to the point that it was hard to showcase in the broadcast her passion and drive," he said.
"It's such a huge shame. I relay my condolences."
